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Little Chinese Car Headed to Detroit

Geely Sedan Expected to Sell for Under $10,000

December 20, 2005
It is pronounced JEE-lee and spelled Geely and is made in China. The Geely is a car and it is not a toy car you’ll find on the shelf at Wal-Mart. In fact, you may buy a Geely from a car dealer not far from the Wal-Mart in the near future.

The plain-Jane midsize sedan is going to be the star of the 2006 Detroit auto show. The not-so-little car is intended for sale in the United States and will retail below $10,000 when the sedan hits the market, probably in late 2008.

Geely Motors will become the first Chinese automaker ever to display a made-in-China car intended for sale in the United States at the Detroit auto show.

The silver sedan is named the Geely 7151 CK. The 7151 CK will be the lowest-priced model in the midsize U.S. car segment, providing more competition for General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and the Chrysler Group.

Turnabout is fair play. GM and Ford have been building and selling cars in China for several years and making lots of money along the way.

This is serious competition though. American consumers and workers alike ought to take a long hard look. Geely's average cost for workers in China is $3.50 an hour. That compares with hourly labor costs of $73.73 for GM.

The competitive advantage available in China is so great that some analysts predict that established automakers such as Honda Motor Co. or even GM will eventually sell Chinese-made vehicles in the United States.

Geely plans to begin selling their sedan and a two-seater sports car in 2008 in Puerto Rico and expand to the U.S. mainland by late 2008 or 2009.

U.S. car dealers already are lining up to sell Chinese vehicles. They're all looking for the next Toyota.

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